Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-23
EvapolatedgGesn corn at
Y.AsER,& MCCLURE's.
sOMEfALL SHOOTING.
Larry Harrigan of St. Louis-Wild BIZ
Feat for Sheridan's Party.
Chicago Herald.

Larry Harrigap of ST. Louis-wild BIZ
Feat for Sherdan's Party.
Chicago Herald.
"Detectives and police officers have
some queer experiences" said the Man
Who Knows Everything yesterday. "and
the very queerest are in connection with
the revolvers they carry. A fly cops gun
should always be in good order, for he
never knows when Re may have occasion
TO use it, and, like it is in Texas, when
he needs a Teapon he needs il pretty
bad. Sometimes, though, things turns
out luckily, as, for instance, when the
Pinkerton men in Lincoln's monument
at Springfield, at the time Of
the grave robbinG scare, got to
shooting At each other, each
supposing the other was the ghoul. The
pistols worked badly, and nobody was
hurt, though the men were so close to
each other thot the flashes from the pis-
tolls almost made light enough 10 see each
other by. When the Pinkerton pistol
went off at Fortieth and Halsted streets
and killed poor Terence Bsgley, nobody
supposed the thing was pointed at any
body. pistol IS queer thing, and you
can't depend upon it. By the way, Jonn
ny English OF the Tribune was in the
monument at Springfield when the Pink
ert0n'S were shooting 81 each other; was
between the men, think, and had 4 mar
row escape for his life. Ask him: ne can
tell you ell about it.
"But, talking about pistols. | heard
Larry Harrigan, now appraiser of the
port Of st. Louis, tell q story about the
experience he had. Harrigan is one of
the best police officers III the country, the
; best chief st. Louis ever had, and q de-
tective who ranks with the best III the
country. He was chief Of police st St.
/ Louis when Cleveland appointed him ap-
| praiSer. Twenty or thirty years ago he
! was 4 lieutenant Of police. 1t was the
! time they were building the Union mar
! ket, on Fifth, Sixth, Christy avenue and
| Morgan street. HarrigaH was walking
along, when he saw thief he wanted
| He steps up to Mr.. Thief and says: 'Wlll
! you be kind enough to walk down TO the
station with me? The captain wants to
see you That isn't the way he said il,
| but 1t meant the same. Now this same
Teller who was wanted knew that il was
all day with him unless he could make
sneak; he knew that HarrigGn had the Gead
wood on him and would send MIN up,
sure. Harrigan had a way of doing
things like that. All at Cnce the thief
turns around and belts Harrigan in the
nose fearful lick, and the blood ran as if
you had drawn cork from q bottle.
Now, Harrigan is an Irishman, though
you might not suspect 1t from his name, |
and this sort of treatment made him mad. /
By the time he recovered from his sur /
prise the thief was twenty feet away and /
leggin' it for life for he knew Harrigan .
would shoot. Well, Harrigan, with the I
blood streaming down his shirt front, .
pulled his pop and let her loose. The .
cartridge failed to explode, and he tried
again, with no better luck. A third time,
also, the gun neglected to go off, and, /
thinking that the thief's time hadn't come ,
yet, he put his gun in mis- pocket and at |
tended to his nose. When he had cleaned .
up he went over to the market, set up g .
board, and, standing off a little distance
bIazed away. Every time he pulled the .
trigger the cartridge exploded. After
ward Harrigan arrested his man and sent .
him over the road.
CAT another time Harrigan tackled q
tough customer, who pulled an old-time .
pepperboX-a pocket gatling. He pressed .
this against the officers side, cooked it
and was about to pull the trigger, when
I1iTIl2uu
cap nipple and the hammer. The flesh
between the thumb and first finger was
torn considerably, but that was better
than having lot of bullets in his body.
1t was after that that Harrigan killed a
noted connterfeiter in the southern part
of St. Louis. he was found secreted in
u house, and when the officers surround
ed 1t he made break for liberty. He
nj Horr q a .
but Harrigan's bullet laid him out cold.
"But, talking about shooting, l saw
Wild Bill shoot once, and it was the pref
test spectacle ever laid my eyes on. 1t
was at Fort Leavenworth, when
Gen. Sheridan had his headquar
tiers there. The scout and Sheri-
dan were always great friends,
and they thought a good deal of each
other. One day Bill came to the fort to
see the general-he was city marshal of
Abilene or Hays City then, l forget
which-and Little Phil met him at the
train. When they got to the fort Sheri-
dan says to Bill: 'Bill, there are several
people here who have never seen you
shoot. Couldn't you do a little some
thing Tor them?' Bill was very modest
and inclined to demur but Sheri-
dan insisted. There was big
crowd around Of officers and others, and
everybody was anxious to have him do
something. Finally Bill says: You see
that sign over thereH pointing to the
Groceries and Provisions on the suffers
store scross the street. well, pu put
five bullets through the little o, and if l
touch the black paint pll treat the
crowd Bets were laid that he couldn't
do it-for army officers will bet on any
thilg-and then Bill took out his revol'
yer. He didn't seem to take any aim,
but blazed e way III q careless way; but
when q soldier had climbed up and taken
down the bo9rd it was found
that the bullets had bored single
hole il the white part Of the o. That
was the best shooting l ever saw.
Bill could hit anything that was hitable-
particularly men. He was terror to
COWBOYS and roughs at Abilene and Hays
City and killed more than one OF them.
The only man Bill shot out there where !
there was any question was Jack Straw
horne. He and Bill didn't like each other
q DIT, and it was only 3 question as to t
who would get the drop. Bill got 1t, and
never knew who hurt him.
They say Bill shot him in the back be- !
cause StrawhOrne was so quick with his
gun that it was almost impossible to get
the drop on him when his face was to- !
ward you. Anyhow, they never cared !
much for dead man in those days and !
there wasn't any coroner's juries going
to bring in any verdict against Wild
Bill"
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